If you run a marketing or consulting agency, you’re always on the lookout for the next service that will give your clients an edge (and boost your bottom line). In 2025, Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is emerging as that next big opportunity. While many agencies have mastered SEO, PPC, and social media marketing, AEO is still relatively new terrain – which means a chance to differentiate early.
Think about how SEO became a staple service offering over the past two decades. We’re at a similar inflection point with AEO. Agencies that adopt AEO strategies now can position themselves as innovative leaders who help clients dominate not just search rankings, but also voice queries and AI-driven results. On the flip side, agencies that ignore this trend risk falling behind, especially as clients begin to ask “How do we get featured in voice searches or on ChatGPT results?”
In essence, AEO represents a way for your agency to future-proof its services. It aligns with the direction search and content consumption are headed. By embracing AEO, you’re not only helping your clients stay ahead, you’re also creating a new revenue stream and reinforcing your role as their go-to digital advisor.
For agencies used to reporting on rankings, traffic, and conversions, AEO might introduce some new KPIs (like snippet placements or voice assistant mentions). But ultimately, it circles back to client value. Here’s how adopting AEO services can benefit your clients – and by extension, your agency:
Expanded Visibility for Clients: Your clients might be ranking on page 1, but are they showing up as the answer? By optimizing their content for answer engines, you help them capture placements they didn’t even know they were missing. For instance, your client could rank #3 for a valuable keyword, but with AEO, a concise answer from their site might show up above the #1 spot as a featured snippet. That’s bonus visibility without paying for ads.
Improved Lead Quality and Trust: When a prospective customer sees a business providing expert answers (especially in featured snippets or via voice assistant), it builds trust before they even visit the website. By positioning your clients as authoritative answer sources, you increase the quality of leads they get – people already perceive them as experts. This success reflects well on your agency’s performance.
Future-Proofing Against Traffic Drops: We all know search engine algorithms can be volatile. With zero-click searches on the rise, even an agency delivering SEO success might see flat or declining organic traffic for a client simply because Google’s answering more queries directly. Offering AEO is like an insurance policy – if Google (or AI engines) are going to bypass clicks, at least make sure your client is the one in that coveted answer box. It helps protect their brand visibility in an evolving landscape.
Differentiation in Your Agency’s Portfolio: There are tons of agencies offering “SEO” and “content marketing.” Far fewer can credibly say they specialise in Answer Engine Optimisation. Adding AEO to your services (and showcasing case studies of snippet wins or voice search success) can set your firm apart in pitches. It signals that you’re on the cutting edge and not just doing yesterday’s tactics.
Cross-Sell with Content Creation: AEO often involves revising or creating new content (like FAQ pages, how-to guides, etc.). This is an opportunity for agencies to offer content development or optimisation as an add-on service. If you already have a content team, AEO gives them a framework to work within (writing Q&A style pieces). If you don’t, it could be a prompt to partner with a content specialist or… (shameless plug) partner with an agency like ours that has AEO content expertise.
One big question agencies face is whether to develop new capabilities in-house or to partner/outsource. With AEO, it boils down to resources and speed:
Building In-House: This means training your SEO/content team on AEO best practices, maybe hiring someone with expertise in schema markup or conversational content. The upside is you fully own the capability and profit margin. The downside is the learning curve – your team might take time to master AEO nuances, during which results for clients could be hit-or-miss.
Partnering with Specialists: There are agencies (like ID Digital Agency) that have already done the trial and error with AEO. Partnering can mean white-labeling their AEO service under your brand or simply collaborating on projects. The obvious benefit is you get expertise on tap immediately, without having to invest in R&D. You also reduce risk – specialists are more likely to deliver quick wins that make your agency look great in the client’s eyes. The trade-off is sharing a portion of the revenue, but consider it akin to subcontracting to deliver the best result.
Hybrid Approach: Some agencies start by partnering (to learn the ropes and satisfy immediate client needs), and simultaneously train one of their team members in AEO. Over a few months, that team member gains experience from the partnership and can start taking on more of the work directly. It’s a “best of both worlds” approach: immediate capability plus long-term skill-building internally.
From a pure business perspective, what matters is client success and retention. If partnering on AEO helps you deliver outstanding results for a key client, you not only keep that client (and possibly upsell more), but you can use that success story to win new business. Most clients won’t mind (or even know) if you partnered behind the scenes – they just care that your agency made it happen for them.
To make this concrete, let’s consider a few scenarios where adding AEO services can elevate an agency’s game:
SEO Agency Example: You manage SEO for a local healthcare provider. Their goal is to appear for many “near me” and question queries (e.g., “What’s the procedure for X at a clinic?”). By integrating AEO, you start creating content that directly answers those medical FAQs and implement schema. Soon, their site is being picked up as the answer for voice searches like “What are the symptoms of… [minor ailment]” along with a prompt “Would you like to book an appointment at XYZ Clinic?” This not only drives appointments but also makes the client see you as innovative.
Content Marketing Agency Example: You produce blog content for a tech SaaS client. Traditionally, you wrote thought leadership pieces and how-tos. Now, you tweak the strategy to incorporate targeted Q&A posts and add mini-FAQ sections to each blog. Over time, those get pulled into “People Also Ask” and even ChatGPT’s training data. New customers mention they saw the brand’s explanation of a technical term via a snippet. Your content now has extended reach beyond the company blog, and the client is impressed with the extra visibility.
Web Design/Development Agency Example: Perhaps you mainly design websites but want to expand into ongoing marketing services. AEO can be a neat entry: after delivering a new site, you offer an AEO audit and optimisation package. It’s a differentiator from other design shops – you’re ensuring the beautiful new site is also an answer machine. Clients get the logic when you explain it, and it can open the door to a longer-term retainer for SEO/AEO maintenance, rather than a one-off web design fee.
Consulting Firm Example: If you’re a business consultant or in a niche like legal or financial consulting, AEO might not be your core service – but knowing about it can still win you points. Imagine advising a law firm on marketing; you suggest they implement AEO so that Alexa can answer “What’s the penalty for XYZ in Victoria?” with that firm’s advice. That kind of insight makes your consulting advice more actionable and modern. If you have a network of execution partners (agencies) to refer, you become a one-stop solution source for the client.
In all these cases, AEO is a value-add that strengthens the service offering and ties the client closer to the agency (you become essential to keeping their modern web presence sharp).
Ready to dive in? Here are some tips for agencies looking to kickstart their AEO offering:
Educate Your Team: Host a training session or workshop about AEO for your strategists, content writers, and SEO specialists. Use examples (perhaps from some of your existing clients’ search results) to illustrate how snippets work. Generating excitement and understanding internally is the first step.
Identify Pilot Clients: Choose one or two existing clients who could benefit from AEO and are open to new ideas. Ideally, ones that produce content or have active blogs. Pitch an AEO pilot project to them – maybe as a small add-on service or even as a free trial if you need to gather results. Success stories from these pilots will be gold for selling AEO to other clients.
Develop an AEO Checklist/Process: Create a repeatable process for your team. For example: 1) Do keyword question research, 2) Identify 5-10 questions to target, 3) Create/optimise content for each (ensure 50-word snippet, etc.), 4) Add FAQ schema, 5) Test and monitor snippet results. Having a checklist ensures consistency and quality as you scale AEO efforts across multiple clients.
Market Your AEO Capability: Once you have a handle on it, update your website and sales collateral to include AEO. Publish a blog post (or repurpose this one!) about AEO on your agency site to show prospects that you’re ahead of the curve. In pitches, mention how you handle not just SEO but also optimisation for voice search and AI – most clients will be intrigued (if they haven’t even heard of it, it’s a chance for you to be their teacher, which already establishes authority).
Leverage Tools and Partners: Use available tools like schema generators for FAQs, or analytics tools that can simulate voice searches. And don’t shy away from partnering with others who have more experience. The AEO community is new and growing; there’s room for collaboration. By delivering great results, whether directly or through partnership, you keep clients happy.
Marketing agencies thrived by mastering SEO when search was about links and keywords. Now, search is evolving to be about answers and conversation. To continue thriving, agencies must evolve too.
By embracing Answer Engine Optimisation, you’re showing your clients that you’re not resting on old successes – you’re proactively adapting to what’s next. You’re equipped to help them navigate a world where a chatbot might recommend the next software tool, or a car’s voice assistant might suggest a restaurant (and you want your client’s restaurant to be the one it suggests!).
Agencies that jump on AEO early will find it rewarding. It not only opens doors to new client engagements and upsells, but it also aligns your services with delivering the kind of results clients will value highly (often intangible but powerful brand visibility wins). It’s pretty compelling to tell a client, “We’ll get you ranking on Google and make sure Siri knows who you are.”
In conclusion, AEO is a natural extension of what you’re likely already doing for clients – creating great content and optimising it for search. It’s just taking that next step to ensure that content is formatted and delivered in the ways today’s consumers are seeking information. For marketing and consulting agencies, it’s a chance to lead by example. Embrace AEO now, and you’ll not only future-proof your clients’ success, but also your own agency’s relevance in a fast-changing digital landscape.
(If your agency is looking for a trusted partner to implement AEO for your clients, ID Digital Agency is here to help. We offer white-label AEO services, training for in-house teams, or collaborative strategies to ensure your clients dominate those answer boxes and voice queries. Let’s connect and shape the future of search together.)